Halliburton Reports Loss on Gulf Oil Spill Legal Costs

[xchrom]

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-04-22/halliburton-reports-loss-on-gulf-oil-spill-legal-costs.html

Halliburton Co. (HAL), the world’s largest provider of hydraulic-fracturing services, reported a first-quarter loss on $637 million in costs for the 2010 U.S. Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

Net loss was $18 million, or 2 cents a share, compared with net income of $627 million, or 68 cents, a year earlier, Houston-based Halliburton said in a statement today on Business Wire. Excluding one-time items, profit was 67 cents a share, exceeding the average of 34 analysts’ estimates compiled by Bloomberg.

Halliburton did cementing work on BP Plc (BP/)’s Macondo well in the Gulf. An explosion at the site resulted in the largest offshore oil spill in U.S. history. Halliburton is in settlement talks about its liability.

“We have recently participated in court-facilitated settlement discussions with the goal of resolving a substantial portion of private claims,” Dave Lesar, chairman and chief executive officer of Halliburton, said in today’s statement. “We are pursuing these settlement discussions because we believe that an early and reasonably-valued resolution is in the best interests of our shareholders.”


***there's a tax write off for that. -- makes the owey better.

[Thinkingabout]

1. Good, take the loss from Cheney's portion, after all he was very happy to make sure Halliburton

Was set up to rob the Defense Dept blind in two wars started, overcharging and on a no bid contract.

[appleannie1]

2. Gee. Let's all have a pity party.

[Nihil]

3. Note that it was "legal costs" not "compensation" ...

> Halliburton did cementing work on BP Plc’s Macondo well in the Gulf.
> An explosion at the site resulted in the largest offshore oil spill in U.S. history.

Mind you, their PR department has been on overtime for the last few years
and must be due a substantial bonus for having successfully kept the focus
of the blame on the hiring company (BP) rather than the shoddy workmanship
of their own people.

Moving their HQ out to Dubai ensures that they are no more vulnerable for
the blame than the rig owners (Transocean - moved from USA to Switzerland)
or BP (UK based all along).